The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-02-12
MERCIFUL SCIENTISTS.

That the lower orders of creation suffer
there can be no doubt. I recollect read
ing not long since an incident in the life
of Culver. He was watching pair of
swallows. The male was seized by q
hawk. He shot the hawk, and wounded
the swallow. He dressed the wound with
all possible tenderness, and replaced it
in it's nest, while the hen futtered sadly
around, uttering cries of distress, and for
three days left the nest only to seek food.
Three days after the male was wounded
it died. From that time the hen refused
food. She died five days after her mate.
know one OF the best women in Mas
sachusetts who, some years ago, to shame
her husband for speaking hastily and i'm
properly, answered the call of her little
canary bird (to which she had never be-
fore spoken an unkind world in violent
and angry tone. Within five minutes
there was futtering in the cage, and
when she got to it the bird was dead. 1
was told in New Orleans, winter before
last, by personal friend Of Mrs. Hen
bricks, widow of the former Vice. Presi-
dent Of the United States, that Mrs. Hen
bricks once killed favorits hooking
bird in the same way. Other similar
cases have seen reported in various
publications. There can be no doubt
that great suffering can be caused to
many of the lower animals simply by the
tones of the human voice.
Concerning the Importance of birds to
agriculture, what Horace Greeley once
wrote is literally true: or The boy who
robs birds nest is robbing the farmer
of part of his crops. The farmer might
as we'll consent that a strolling ruffian
should shoot his horses or his cattle, as
his birds.
Agassiz believed that there is future
life for the lower animals as well as for
us. He died in that belief. 1t is the be-
lief, in some form, of the majority Of the
human race. Some two hundred volumes
or thereabouts have been written on the
subject. John Wesley, Jeremy Taylor,
Bishop Butler, Coleridge, Lamartine. and
many of the leading clergymen OF the
past and present, have held and do hold
this belief.
Agassiz taught his pupils to kill fish by
blow on the back of the head as soon as
they were caught, that they might not
suffer before dying.
President Lincoln, walking with
friend one day, stopped and put his hand
down through the bushes. "What do
you find there, Mr.. Lincoln?" said the
friend. Why" answered Mr.. Lincoln,
here is little bird fallen out of its nest
and am trying to put it back again"
"Thanks to my stars" says the cele,
brated DIR. Charming, 81 can say 1 have
never killed bird. / would not crush
the meanest insect that crawls upon the
ground. They have the same right to
live that I have; they received it from
the same Father, and 1 will not mar the
works of God by wanton cruelty"
at saw little spotted turtle" wrote
Theodore Parker, "sunning itself in
the shallow water. 1 lifted the stick in
my hand to kill it; for. though l had
never killed any creature, yet had seen
other boys, out of sport, destroy birds,
squirrels and the like, and had dis
position to follow their example. But all
at once something checked my little arm,
and a voice within me said, clear and
loud, 1t is wrong held my uplifted
stick in wonder at the new emotion, till
the turtle vanished from sight.
"I fastened home, and told the tale to
my mother, and asked what it was that
told me it was wrong. She wiped tear
from her eye, and, taking me in her arms,
said, Some men call it conscience, but
prefer TO call it the voice Of God in the
soul of man. II you listen and obey it,
it will speak clearer and clearer, and